ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2022
Depression and Dementia: The Role of Cortisol and Vascular Brain Lesions. AGES-Reykjavik Study.
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Late-Onset Depression and Dementia: A Systematic Review of the Temporal Relationships and Predictive Associations.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Remission is insufficient: predictors and mechanistic models of recurrence in late-life depression.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Effect of cognitive training on cortisol levels in patients with neurocognitive disorders.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Cumulative and variable depression symptom exposure and incident dementia: Panel data analysis of four longitudinal cohort studies.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Association between housework frequency and cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults: a prospective cohort study based on CLHLS.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Temporal dynamics in the association between depression and dementia: an umbrella review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Abnormalities in Electroencephalographic Microstates in Patients with Late-Life Depression.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Article
- Is later-life depression a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease or a prodromal symptom: a study using post-mortem human brain tissue?Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2023Article
- Using Hypothesis-Led Machine Learning and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis to Identify Disease Pathways Prior to Dementia: Longitudinal Cohort Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- The enigma of vascular depression in old age: a critical update.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2022Review
- Roles of traditional chinese medicine regulating neuroendocrinology on AD treatment.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLate-life depression (LLD) is related to an increased risk of developing dementia; however, the biological mechanisms explaining this relationship remain unclear.
objectiveTo determine whether the relationship between LLD and dementia can be best explained by the glucocorticoid cascade or vascular hypothesis.
methodsData are from 4,354 persons (mean age 76±5 years) without dementia at baseline from the AGES-Reykjavik Study. LLD was assessed with the MINI diagnostic interview (current and remitted major depressive disorder [MDD]) and the Geriatric Depression Scale-15. Morning and evening salivary cortisol were collected (glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis). White matter hyperintensities (WMH; vascular hypothesis) volume was assessed using 1.5T brain MRI. Using Cox proportional hazard models, we estimated the associations of LLD, cortisol levels, and WMH volume with incident all-cause dementia, AD, and non-AD dementia.
resultsDuring 8.8±3.2 years of follow-up, 843 persons developed dementia, including 397 with AD. Current MDD was associated with an increased risk of developing all-cause dementia (HR = 2.17; 95% CI 1.66-2.67), with risks similar for AD and non-AD, while remitted MDD was not (HR = 1.02; 95% CI 0.55-1.49). Depressive symptoms were also associated with increased risk of dementia, in particular non-AD dementias. Higher levels of evening cortisol increased risk of dementia, but this was independent of MDD. WMH partially explained the relation between current MDD and dementia risk but remained increased (HR = 1.71; 95% CI 1.34-2.08).
conclusionThe current study highlights the importance of LLD in developing dementia. However, neither the glucocorticoid cascade nor the vascular hypotheses fully explained the relation between depression and dementia.
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